Round The World and other travels

Boarding was by Door 2, so I made the celebrated left turn and passed through the small forward section of Business Class and on into First. In contrast to my feeling on boarding parent company Lufthansa's long-haul flight just over a week previously, I immediately loved this layout! I had my own single seat and it came with lots of personal space and storage options. The seat itself was contained in a hard shell and the package was completed by a side console and a moveable ottoman. As the name suggests, this latter item doubled as a buddy seat and a little chest for additional storage - ideal for shoes, I thought. The ottoman also served as a footrest.

The purser put my jacket in the wardrobe, using one of the two hangers that were already present in my seat area. My pre-departure drink on this occasion was apple juice with ice. The expected flight time was announced as 2 hours and 5 minutes, Singapore being one hour ahead of Bangkok. There was a hot towels service on the ground, followed by distribution of immigration forms. The Maitre de Cabine also came by to say hello.

We finally pushed back from stand at 1649 and made it into the air at six minutes past the hour. I took a minute to have a look through the very presentable amenity kit by Bally. While I clearly didn't need pyjamas on this short sector, I could see from the passenger in 2K that they were very similar to the Lufthansa offering. Cabin service got underway quickly, as my table was laid and I was offered a glass of Champagne. The light meal menu was as follows :-

Meal service, as on Lufthansa, made heavy use of restaurant-style trolleys. I was given an attractive individual bread basket and offered a choice of butter or olive oil. The starter was delicious and all was proceeding very nicely indeed. Then, with profuse apologies, the cabin crew advised me that the beef was no longer available, so I could have either the Thai curry or some chicken from Business Class. I tried the curry and it proved to be lovely, washed down with a glass of Chablis. I received at least two further apologies for this lapse from First Class service standards. The Purser said it seemed to be an endemic shortcoming on this sector about which he had personally complained on numerous occasions.

Anyhow, the meal continued with a nice selection of Swiss cheeses. By this time, I was also sampling some Beethoven and Schubert on the IFE system and I was most impressed by the superb quality of the reproduction - not a hint of distortion! Finally, I declined the offer of dessert and had a cappuccino, with a couple of choccies by Sprüngli.

Darkness fell quickly and in what seemed like no time at all, we were on our approach into SIN, where we touched down at Changi at 2011 local time. It took only three minutes to park at our stand, which I thought was impressive at such a huge airport.